How Pep Guardiola used Bruno Fernandes’ ‘bad attitude’ to motivate his players

Pep had 'clips of Fernandes' prepared to show his players

Over the past few days, since the Catalan head coach formally announced his departure on Friday (May 22), much has been made of Guardiola's achievements.

At the Etihad, the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager won six Premier League titles, as well as City's maiden Champions League triumph in 2023, all while raising standards right across the English football pyramid.

Aside from those on-field achievements, renowned media outlet the Athletic, have unveiled further fascinating details on what life was like behind the scenes at Man City under the iconic manager.

Until now, other than an Amazon Prime "All or Nothing" documentary in 2018, very little had been known about how the 55-year-old head coach operates behind the scenes.

As part of the report, the outlet's Man City correspondent Sam Lee has revealed just how much of a hands-on role the 55-year-old made sure to maintain, even into the late years of his reign.

A large portion of Guardiola's communication style with players related to lengthy presentations he would give in the weeks between matches, where he would hammer home key tactical areas of improvement he expected from his squad, showing them clips to demonstrate where they could do better.

Lee reports: "He [Guardiola] spends between 60 and 90 minutes preparing a 20 or 30-minute meeting, one of the reasons people close to him wonder how he still finds the time to do it all.

"Coaching courses would recommend short, sharp meetings these days, but Guardiola’s go against that, and he ensures his coaches have all the right clips and that they stop them at exactly the right time.

"He will often repeat the same messages day after day, so the players have no excuses."

Guardiola's persistent messaging mattered just as much for improvements in team culture, as with tactical matters, with the Catalan consistently marking out areas where his players could show more team spirit.

The Athletic point to the recent fixture between Arsenal and Man City in April.

City responded well to a Gianluigi Donnarumma goalkeeping error, to come out as 2-1 winners.

"What I like is the reaction of his mates,” Guardiola is reported to have said after Donnarumma the error, “they were there to help him, that is what we worked on this season incredibly.

“When I see the teams that concede a goal and everybody is complaining and everybody is for themselves, I don’t like it. And they were together.”

On the complete flip side, Guardiola is also said to have made use of examples of players showing the exact opposite, a lack of team spirit, to show his squad what not to do.

It was in this instance that Pep prepared a series of clips of Bruno Fernandes' reactions— and overall "negative attitude"— to show his players.

Per the Athletic: "The day after September’s derby, one source who was present describes how the manager did not want to highlight what his players had done — the focus was instead on Bruno Fernandes.

"The Portugal midfielder was livid with his United team-mates for their role in Phil Foden’s opening goal, openly berating them as City celebrated.

"Guardiola had the clips prepared so he could send a message to his players that while Fernandes is a fine player, displaying such a negative attitude towards his team-mates would not be accepted at City."